I published my ebook! ?

A few days ago I wrote a post offering writing tips, and I shared my experience of writing an ebook in 2 weeks. Towards the end of the post I confessed that the writing took 2 weeks, but the editing and publishing took over 2 years, and I hadn't published my ebook when I wrote that post.

But the only thing stopping me from publishing was me. I was complicating the process. Early feedback about the book was that it was great as it stands, and reviewers didn't understand why I was putting it off.

But I felt something was missing.

The ebook was intended to solve a problem, and I didn't feel it did a good job at solving the problem I intended to solve.

Did it offer great productivity advice?

Yes, but I felt that was part of the problem.

The main problems I wanted to address were:

1- Feeling overwhelmed by productivity advice (offering MORE advice felt like adding fuel to the fire)

2- Reading advice, but not applying it(reading is often a form of procrastination. It LOOKS like progress, but really isn't)

3- Making sure the advice is relevant to the reader (not the writer)

I felt the ebook wasn't really encouraging people to apply, and I didn't help readers properly identify their own obstacles and challenges, and how to overcome them.

After launching an email course that helps people make daily adjustments to their productivity, I felt like I was on the right track. THIS will get people to DO rather than simply READ (problem #2). And the course encourages people to focus on their own challenges and to ignore my advice if it's not relevant to them (problems #1 and #3).

But...

The email course is sequential, and I chose the sequence of topics (which reinforces problem #3 on relevance).

I then realized that a combination of course AND ebook would mean that people are encouraged to make daily changes, while having access to an ebook that offers advice across all 10 areas that make up our productivity.

This was a great combination that I felt more comfortable with.

And I now offer the ebook for free with the 12-week email course, and as a standalone ebook. People can get to choose their own adventure.

You can check out the email course and ebook, and I'll keep this community posted on my progress building a business around info products!

@haideralmosawi Congratulations! I had the peek behind the curtain, and I'm glad you are finally getting your book out into the world. I can see how pairing the book with an email course would be a powerful combination.

@haideralmosawi @basilesamel One Sunday morning I was in Paradise Valley, AZ at a Barnes & Noble waiting for a student whom I was tutoring and the actor Vince Vaughn walked in. He was disheveled and looked like he was out partying all night. As he headed to the coffee shop, some customer asked him what kind of books he liked to read: fiction or nonfiction. His reply, "A little bit of both."

@basilesamel Haha! Well, I struggled a lot with decisions on publishing platform and, for the email course, I went with an imperfect solution that allowed me to ship early vs seeking a perfect solution that would delay the launch (I have to manually add subscribers because there is no integration between the payment gateway I'm using and ConvertKit).

This is my first product and there were lots of moving parts I wasn't familiar with, so I prioritized making the product available over optimizing any aspect of the delivery.

As for actually making something available to the world: I think to myself: "would the lives of my audience be better with this product than not having the product?" I ask this especially when deciding on the scope of the product and when it feels "ready". In most cases an imperfect product is still a great product, and I want to get into the habit of shipping vs perfecting.